I’ve received a lot of phone calls and messages from my families and friends lately concerned about how I am and asking if I’m planning to return to China soon. I’m doing a master’s degree in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics, and I’m determined to stay here until summer. That may seem like a silly decision for most of people, but I have work to finish here and other obligations to fulfil.
近期许多家人和朋友给我打电话发信息，关心我的状况，询问我是否计划回国。我正在攻读硕士学位，就读于伦敦政治经济学院媒体与传播专业，我决定要在这里待到夏天。对多数人来说，这一决定似乎不理智，但我还有许多工作必须完成，很多责任必须担负。
Nearly 100,000 people have been confirmed to have COVID-19 in Britain. The British government’s response has included a nationwide order for people to stay at home, for universities to shut down, flight to be cancelled and bans on travel.
在英国，已经有接近十万人确诊新冠肺炎。英国政府为了应对疫情，在全国范围内要求居家隔离、大学停学、航班停运、严禁旅游。
In the UK the real fight against the virus seems to have begun only about five or six weeks ago, but I’ve been engaged in it for more than 10 weeks.
(截止4月16日)在英国，真正开始抗击疫情似乎只有五六周，但我已经投身这场战“疫”超过十周。
In early February I joined a WeChat group in which LSE students from Shaanxi province could offer help to families and friends back home. We overcame a lot of difficulties to raise money, buy things and then pack them and have them delivered, and we were pleased to be able to send more than 10,000 masks to hospitals in Xi’an, Shaanxi’s capital.
二月初，我加入了一个微信群，群里就读于伦敦政经的陕西学子，在为家乡的亲人朋友提供支援。我们克服诸多困难筹集资金，购买物资打包后寄回中国。我们十分欣慰，能够输送一万多只口罩，到陕西省会城市西安的多家医院。
In the meantime, friends of mine elsewhere were doing their best to help out their hometowns. And I’ve never felt such a strong sense of patriotism and solidarity before, but at the same time I have never felt so powerless to help. Here I was thousands of kilometers away from home, and helpless as my friends and our families suffered from this disaster. All I could do was to pray every night for spring and for happier times to come as soon as possible.
同时，各处的朋友也在竭尽所能支援家乡。我从未感受过如此强烈的爱国和团结之情，但同时我也体味着前所未有的无助感。距家千里之外的我，面对亲朋好友受疫情之灾却束手无策。我能做的只有夜夜祈祷，希望春天和幸福时光早日降临。
I also felt powerless in another battle – against racism. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, people of Asian backgrounds all over the UK have been vilified, being abused both verbally and physically. For example, a postgraduate Chinese student in the northern city of Sheffield was harassed in the street, apparently for only wearing a face mask. The Manchester Chinese Centre has received scores of complaints for racist incidents targeting children in schools. We generally think of universities as places free of racial intolerance, but a friend of mine was abused by a student on our LSE campus, telling her to “go back home” and “stay in China”.
让我同样感到无助的还有另一场战役——反种族歧视。自疫情暴发以来，英国各地均有亚裔被污蔑，遭受言语或肢体霸凌。一名中国研究生在英国北部的谢菲尔德市，被当街骚扰，只因他戴了口罩。曼彻斯特华人之家收到大量投诉，均和在校儿童面临的种族歧视有关。我们普遍认为大学不会出现种族偏见，但我的朋友遭遇歧视，在伦敦政经的校园里一个学生对她吼道：“回你的国家”、“待在中国”。
Some friends and I decided not to take this abuse lying down, so we established a Facebook group and an Instagram account named “Chinese against racist virus”. We held a workshop to talk about issues of race and to think up protest slogans, make posters, banners, stickers and so on. And for two weeks we mobilized online and offline to promote our cause.
我和朋友们无法对种族歧视坐视不理，因此建立脸书群组和照片墙上的账号，取名“中国人反对种族主义病毒”。我们开展工作坊讨论种族问题，构思标语，制作海报、横幅和贴纸等。接下来的两周，我们在线上和线下动员，推广反种族歧视观念。
And to my surprise, our group of 10 members soon had more than 130 members, people from all over the world living in London came to help us. A protest rally in Trafalgar Square in central London that we organized attracted dozens of people sympathetic to our cause, including local activist groups. We wore masks bearing the words “Racism is a virus” chanted anti-racism slogans, waved banners and made speeches. We even attracted big media outlets like The Guardian and Bloomberg.
出乎我的意料，我们的群组很快从10人壮大到130多人，来自不同国家现居于伦敦的人向我们表达支持。我们在伦敦市中心特拉法加广场组织的反种族歧视活动，吸引了数十人声援，其中包括许多当地的团体组织。我们戴上口罩，上面写有“种族主义是一种病毒”，高呼反种族主义口号，挥舞着横幅，发表演讲。我们甚至吸引了大型媒体机构的关注，比如《卫报》和彭博社。
One thing that made a big mark on me at the rally was a speech later in the day by a local resident. He said: “In this country, racism against Chinese and the East Asian people needs to be stopped. I appeal to your common humanity, your sense of compassion and fair play. All of us need to fight for it and make sure children especially are not subject to racism.”
在活动中给我留下深刻印象的是当天晚些时候一位当地居民的演说。他说：“在这个国家，对中国人和东亚人的种族歧视需要被制止。我呼吁大家抱有人道之心、同情心和公正之念。我们所有人都应该为此奋斗，尤其确保儿童不受种族主义影响。”
After the protest was over a Korean friend told me how much the protest meant to her and how important it was in sending a signal to the world. She told me that it would raise people’s awareness and make the world a better place.
在这场活动结束后，一个韩国朋友向我讲述，这场活动对她有多深远的意义，活动向世界传达的信号是多么重要。她告诉我这会提高人们的意识，让世界变得更好。
A few weeks after the protest, the UK government announced its stay-at-home policy, which suddenly made it more difficult for me to study with my friends, including working on our film projects. We had been shooting documentaries about how tough it could be for Chinese studying abroad to fight against COVID-19 and racism. The virus can stop us from going out, but nothing can stop us from raising people’s awareness of racial equality. I and several other students from universities around the UK are now working on a reading list project named “Racism and Disease” which aims to gather and collate journalistic and academic articles related to the topic and write English and Chinese abstracts for them. once the project is done, the results will be published on every social media account of “Chinese against racist virus” to expand its visibility.
活动结束几周后，英国政府宣布了居家隔离政策，这意味着我和朋友更难相聚学习，也无法继续我们的拍摄项目。我们一直在拍摄纪录片，讲述中国留学生在海外是如何艰难抗击新冠病毒和种族主义。病毒可以阻止我们走出家门，但我们一直在行动，提升人们的种族平等意识。我和就读于英国不同大学的几名学生也在开展一项阅读活动，名为“种族主义与疾病”，致力于收集相关主题的期刊和学术文章，并为它们撰写中英文摘要。项目完成后，结果将发布在“中国人反对种族主义病毒”的各个账号，来扩大影响力。
I think we have every reason to hope that the world will become a safer place in which people are treated equally, as humans and not a virus.
我认为我们有充分的理由希望世界成为一个更安全的地方，在这里人人平等——作为人类，而非病毒。
And another thing that makes me very optimistic is to see how the coronavirus pandemic is forcing the governments to rethink their priorities and realize that economies are there to work for people, and not the other way around. In the UK, new hospitals are being created to care for the sick, heartless immigration laws are being relaxed, and posh hotels are being commandeered to house the homeless.
另外让我感到乐观的，是看到新冠病毒疫情迫使政府重新思考他们的优先级，意识到经济发展服务于人，而非反过来。英国正在修建新的医院收治感染者，放宽冰冷的移民法，征用豪华酒店来接纳无家可归的人。
I’ve never felt a stronger bond with the world or a greater appreciation of the work that nurses, food workers, doctors, cleaners, rubbish collectors and so on perform for all of us. We often take their work for granted, and now they should be given the dignity and wages they deserve. British National Health Service has been facing shortages of clothing and equipment to keep its staff safe, and I have donated money to a fund to support its staff and other essential workers. I have also signed up to be a volunteer to help 1.5 million people in the UK who have been asked to shield themselves from coronavirus because of the underlying health conditions.
此刻我与世界的联结比任何时候都更强，抱有比以往更强烈的感激之情，面对护士、食品行业从业者、医生、清洁工、废品回收人员等工作者的付出。我们常把他们的工作视为理所应当，但他们应该得到应有的尊严和薪酬。英国卫生部缺乏让工作人员免受病毒侵袭的防护服和设备，我向基金会捐款支援卫生部工作人员。同时我也在做志愿者，帮助英国150万有基础疾病的人做好个人防疫。
Many Chinese students in London and elsewhere in the UK decided it was the best choice for them to return home, and that is a decision l respect. I also really appreciate that my parents and friends respect my decision to stay here and trust my ability to protect myself. I and tens of thousands of oversea students are doing that with the help of Chinese embassies and consulates around the world that are distributing packs to Chinese students studying abroad. These packs contain masks, Chinese medicine, disinfectant and even a quote from an ancient Chinese poem about being far from home and love from the motherland.
许多在伦敦和英国其他地方的中国留学生认为回国是最好的选择。我尊重他们的决定。我也非常感激我的父母和朋友尊重我留在这里的决定，他们相信我有能力保护好自己。我和数万中国留学生，有世界各处的中国使领馆做坚强后盾，他们向留学生分发健康包。里面有口罩、中药、消毒剂、甚至还有一句古诗，描写游子远行思念故土。
It may take some time to conquer the COVID-19 pandemic, but whenever that day comes I do hope that one lesson many people can learn from it is that regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, nationality, or any other social or personal characteristics, we all have the right to be treated with dignity and respect. Thank you.
战胜新冠疫情尚需时日，但无论这一天何时到来，我希望人们能从疫情中学到，不论年龄、性别、种族、宗教、国籍或是其他任何社会和个人特征，我们每个人都应该有尊严被尊重。谢谢。
